Memorial Weekend Camping
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: The Cubicle Hum
Topic: Travel
Camping got off to a rough start. Late Friday night one of the belts in Travis’ car broke and it’s a belt most places don’t keep in stock. We had to wait Saturday until service places opened to call around and find one. He was lucky that there was one near by that had the belt in stock. Getting the belt and getting installed was a pain (I won’t go into all the details). We finally got on the road around 1:30 (as opposed to 9 or 10 as intended).

We stop at a ranger station on our way up to Serene Lake just to check on the conditions. The ranger said it was still under 3-4 ft of snow. Okay, there goes that plan. She recommended we head to Bull of the Woods Wilderness and gave us a map. So we head that way hoping that lots of other people were not also doing that. There were several options for us and we choose the Pansy Lake area because if we got there and there were lots of people we could continue on to some other lakes until we found one with few people. We talked to somebody at the trailhead who said that Pansy Lake was pretty crowded when they went by and that it was also pretty snowy further in so they turned around and left. We decide to head up anyway. By this time it was about 3pm. We get to a split in the trail about ¾ mile in (before the lake) and decide to head up towards Dickey Lake rather than Pansy Lake (Travis was having an issue with any lake named Pansy). The hike was extremely beautiful but quickly headed up in elevation. Remember – we have gear for backpacking with us (tents, sleeping bags, etc). Travis’ pack was probably in the 55-60 pound range and mine significantly less but still a bit heavy for the first trip of the season. We hit a few snow patches but it was packed so relatively easy to navigate over. It appeared there was no easy access to Dickey Lake from the trail and we continued on. Travis noted on the map that there appeared to be a nice secluded little lake off the trail a ways ahead of us. I mentioned that it looked like a fairly steep descent down to it based on my mad map reading skills meaning that it would be a fairly steep ASCENT the next day with our heavy packs.

We get to the top of the ridge and yes, it was extremely steep. Does this prevent Travis from wanting to hike down there? Of course not. We start descending with our packs pretty much sliding most of the way. Luckily for me, I had my trekking poles which made a world of difference. About 50 feet down and lots of bitching by me, we see no sign of the bottom or a lake. We decide to deposit the packs and go a bit further down to scout it out. We mark our path with bits of an old milk jug to make certain we can find our packs again. We finally get close to the bottom and see the lake. Quite a stunning location. Too bad it was surrounded by thick snow! We sat there for awhile lamenting all our hiking troubles caused by snow. I think the snow gods have it out for us. We start heading back up the trail. We reach our packs and then the real fun begins lugging them up the 50 feet we had gone down with them initially. I think my trekking poles saved my life several times over. Travis had a heck of a time with his back and had to basically toss it up one step at a time since wearing it would have been too dangerous with that steep of a slope.

We finally get back to the trail (which I should mention has frequent downed trees that we have to climb over) and decided to continue up toward the lookout. One person we passed on the trail said that only one group is camping up there. We hoped to find another spot and camp there for the night. Travis puts on his pack, tightens the waist band and *snap*. The buckle broke. Fabulous. NOT what you want with a 60 pound pack It’s quite a bit further UP than I had anticipated but eventually we make it. While quite stunning, there were no other spots where we’d be able to set up for the night. We eat some food and rest for a bit before continuing on the trail in search of a flat area to set camp. At this point we also notice that our map has disappeared. It must have fallen out of the pack unnoticed so now we have to go by memory following the trails. Some threatening rain clouds had moved in and our light was quickly disappearing. We decided to continue on the “loop” trail which should get us down the mountain. Luckily, the trail is now descending and/or flat so the difficulty decreases. Unfortunately, it doesn’t descend very quickly and seems to go on and on and on and on. We’re getting tired and sore. And the trail goes on. The sun sets. Headlamps go on. Hiking in the dark ensues. With the setting sun, we now get a chorus of frogs from a lake below. The sound was truly amazing and kept us moving as we knew the louder they got, the closer to the lake we were which meant a potential place to stop for the night.

We reached a trail intersection and searched for a sign. To the left was Pansy Lake (the lake we were trying to avoid in the first place. One mile to the right – the road we arrived on. We looked at each other and said to hell with it. Let’s go back and sleep in the car. We knew the lake was crowded and didn’t want to hike the rest of the way (in the dark) there only to find out there are no spots. We get to the car, take off our packs and breathe a huge sigh of relief. We rest in the front seats for a bit then decide to head up the road a little to find a turn off where we could park and sleep in privacy. At this point Travis’ shoulder started stiffening and almost totally seized up – serious pain and lack of movement. He popped an ibuprofen and we continued up the road. We found a brush covered road to turn onto and after a couple hundred feet a log stopped our progress. We said that’s good enough, pushed down the back seats, cracked the windows to release our sweaty stench and crashed. We fell asleep to another frog serenade around 10:30 pm. Yes, we had been on the trail for about 7 hours.

In the late morning we wake up to find a great little pond just on the other side of the tree. We make coffee and head home.

Travis’ shoulder was quite a bit better the next day. The muscles were still fairly tight so I tried to massage them out. Carrying the pack without the waist support really did a number on him. I’m just sore all over – nothing particularly bad. All in all, it was beautiful, we did get away and it wasn’t a bad trip – just not quite what we were expecting! We had expected that the loop was about 4 hrs and couldn’t believe it took us so long even with our little side jaunt and a few stops along the way. We looked up the trail when we got home to find out it was 7.5 miles with a 2,000 foot elevation gain. Yikes! That made us feel quite a bit better about the trip and that we weren’t the “pansies” we were thinking we were!

Funemployment no more...
Mood:  crushed out
Topic: Nothing in Particular

I got an offer for a QA position at WebMD on Friday. It's a 6 month contract but that's totally cool with me. I kinda like working hourly because then I either get paid for overtime or they try not to let you work OT. I will also have full health benefits paid 100% by the employment/recruiting agency they use. Of course if they really love me they can always extend the contract or hire me full time when it is up. I think it will be a pretty cool company to work for. They even have a ping pong table in the office. They want me to start either April 2 or possibly mid-next week if they can get the paperwork ready early. I kinda hope it's April 2.

Aside from that, I've been sick the past few days. Some nasty sinus crapola that is giving me an awful headache, ear pressure and infected tonsils. Woohoo. It's fucked up though because I had two outings for my climbing class this weekend. I attempted the hike yesterday but couldn't make it to the summit before I thought my head was going to explode. So now I have to make that hike up another time. Then this morning was belay/rappel practice at Rocky Butte but my head still hurt so bad this morning that I couldn't go. So now I have to make that up with another group to. This class is off to a fine start.

I haven't seen Travis for a week now and we are supposed to have dinner tonight. Of course that will probably get canceled too since I'm sure he doesn't want my sickness. So aside from the fact that I actually have a job, life kinda sucks at the moment. :(

I took some pics of the latest work on the yard but my sister has the camera with the pics still on there so you will have to wait to see them.

I think it's back to the couch with me and my vicodin induced stupor.

I'm climbing Mt Everest!
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Evanescence
Topic: Mountaineering
Okay, not really but it's probably going to seem like it to me. I got my acceptance into the Mazama's Beginning Climbing Education Class last weekend and today I got the detailed info on the class. It's going to be a pretty intensive 6 weeks. There is a lecture every Monday night plus a fairly difficult hike every weekend except one. In addition, there are 3 field sessions on 3 different weekends. This means on two of the weekends we'll be out both Saturday and Sunday. There are also two different Thursday night events.

The hikes are all in the difficult range and used as conditioning tools for the climbing season. I haven't done any of them before so it should be alot of fun. They include the following:

1. Dog Mountain (along the Columbia Gorge)

2. Nick Eaton Ridge (also along the Gorge)

3. Elk-King Traverse (hike between two peaks in the Coast Range)

4. Larch Mountain (also near the Gorge but just south)

5. Palmer / Illumination Saddle (this is over Palmer glacier up on Mt Hood)

6. Ruckel Ridge (yet another one along the Gorge)

Busier while unemployed? What's that about?
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Nothing in Particular
How the heck does that happen? Things have been pretty crazy since the Wine and Seafood. I've been continuing on with the job hunt. Unsuccessfully at this point of course. I've also been spending lots of time with Travis (the guy from the Seafood/Wine Fest). We seem to have way too much fun together. Been doing alot of stuff around the house like finally getting some things planted in the front yard. I went to the SE Art Walk last Sunday but I was too tired to hit up many places. We saw this one artists stuff that was just amazing. I want to go back when I get a job because everything was so reasonably priced. Check out her website if you're interested.

http://www.nimxuto.com/

Today I think I'm going to do a bit more yardwork before it starts raining again then head off to the Gap Outlet, get a workout in and then I think go out with Travis.

Seafood & Wine
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Travel
Well it can't get much better than that! I spent the weekend with 13 strangers in Newport. I had actually met a few of them at a Halloween party last year so they weren't completely strange. :-) The main goal was to hit up the Seafood and Wine Festival there - I had never been. It was quite the experience as it was a particularly stormy weekend and the fest was in a big tent that you would swear was ready to blow down any second. Of course after hitting up a few wine booths you stopped noticing that! Saturday we were up until 4am playing pool, ping pong and putting together the puzzle that wouldn't die. I neglected bringing my camera so no pics for you.

I got another call about a potential job today. Even if I don't get a job right away at least I know my resume is worth calling about.

It finally happened
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Beck - Think I'm In Love (radio)

I actually got laid off. I've never been laid off before. With as many companies that I've worked for and as many layoff that have occured I've always scraped by. I guess I knew my time was coming. Of course technically I'm am being switched from salary to "hourly" but if there are no hours to work (which there aren't) then basically I'm jobless. But if I'm still jobless in 2-3 months they said they will probably have work then. Fuck them. I've been wanting to get off my lazy bum to find something new anyway. I guess this is the time. It sucks ass though because I really like working in my pajamas, taking 1.5 hrs in the middle of the day to hit the gym, drinking at 4pm.... It was a sweet gig (despite hating the actual work).

On another note - my Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue training class was cancelled. Some dipshit decided he was sick on WEDNESDAY and could not go out on SATURDAY. That knocked the class from 3 people to 2 people and it makes no sense to have class with only 2 people. I think he's just being a pussy and afraid to go.

I also mailed in my application for the Mazamas Basic Climbing Education Program. Perfect timing now that I'll be broke. ha ha! I'm still going to do it though because if I die no biggie now, right?

http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/starts-here/C55/

typo city
Mood:  lazy
Please excuse the numerous typos in the post below. Apparently I need to brush up on my typing skills rather than mountaineering. I'm too lazy to fix them all so deal with it. :-)

Mt Hood, here I come!
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Mountaineering
OMG. I am so freaking sore today. I could barely push my upper body out of bed this morning. I had to sort of roll myself out. I’m thinking about drinking my coffee from a straw because my arm shakes just picking it up. But that’s getting ahead of myself…

I had to meet the class at PCC Central at 7am Saturday morning. We loaded up our gear and headed to the mountain. There were 5 people in the class, the instructor, his assistant and the assistant’s girlfriend who basically just took the class so we could have 3 teams of 2 for various activities. Of the 5 people two were girls and 3 guys. The other girl’s husband is part of the mountain rescue team for Hood so she knew a lot of this stuff anyway. Two of the guys had done a little mountaineering before and the 3rd had about as much experience as me (that would be none).

We get to Timberline, change into our mountaineering boots, put on the snow/wind gear, got our ice axes, harnesses, etc. It was such a beautiful morning. I really wish I had my camera. You could see all the Sisters and Mt Jefferson. There were some beautiful cloud formations with this pinkish/blue sky. Truly amazing. We head over to this little canyon/valley beside the parking lot. It’s probably two hundred feet deep and fairly steep. We are hiking along and suddenly the snow is just ice. More ice than we can kick steps into with our boots. We manage to find a way around and get down to the bottom of the canyon. We begin the instruction with how to do basic steps up a slope in the snow. We start up the other side of the canyon and yep, more ice. The instructor decided we get an immediate lesson in crampons. Woohoo! It’s something he usually waits until the end of the day but he said he has never seen the snow this bad in February before. After we got our crampons on we got to climb up and down the slope a few times which was fun. You have to use your ice axe as an anchor and so there are several ways to do it which we practiced.

Then it was on to self-arrest (which I would have though we would learn BEFORE we climbed but that is just my opinion). Self-arrest is basically what you do to stop yourself when you decide to plunge down the mountain. We practiced the moves on a flat area first but then we had to practice on a slope too. This is where the “fun” came in. In order to practice you basically have to throw yourself down the side of the canyon. Yeah. Had the snow been somewhat soft it wouldn’t have been an issue. This was hard shit. So you launch yourself face forward, ice axe in hand. The point is to jam the pick of the ice axe into the snow and swing your body around so you end up with your feet pointing downward which you then use to dig into the snow to stop yourself along with the ice axe. We also got to practice launching ourselves on our back, head first down the side of the hill. This was actually easier I thought because I couldn’t see where I was going. The whole launching of self where I could see what I was doing was much more intimidating.

Next up was glissading which is basically sitting on your butt sliding down the hill but trying to keep yourself under control using the ice ax and your feet. This was a bit hard on the butt due to all the ice. THEN he whips out these sliders that he invented (basically took those little flexible sleds, cut out room for the legs, tied it around the waist and off you go. Damn, those go fast. That was a bit scary. He said he’s basically slid all the way from the top of Hood to Timberline on one of those. Along with a few other mountains…

Then it was on to working with the ropes. I should mention here that at about this time the weather changed drastically and it was suddenly pouring rain, windy, cold, etc… We did some belaying and rappelling as well as practicing walking on a rope team. I won’t get into all that because it was pretty uneventful. Although it was cool that a snow bollard could actually hold 4 guys pulling on a rope without breaking. We finished up the day climbing out of the canyon and back to the parking lot on a running belay (where the team is all roped and clipped to pickets but still moving along in the case of a fall).

At the end of the day we were all soaked head to toe and for whatever reason I swear it takes twice as long to get back to Portland than it does to get to Timberline. The good thing is that the only part of me that got even remotely cold was my fingers for a short time and my face. The rest of me was toasty warm. Plus, while my outer clothing was soaked, I was totally dry underneath.

Next week is the Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue training which expands a bit on what we learned yesterday plus how to travel with a sled. I think I will wait until that class is over to decide about furthing my mountaineering skills. I did have a lot of fun doing it though (with the exception of tossing myself off a mountain). The Mazama class is more than just snow climbing though as it gets into rock climbing too. Rock climbing has been something I’ve thought of doing for years now but never had the gumption to do it. Maybe now that I’m old and break easier it is the time! Ha ha!

So that was my big adventure for the weekend. Today an old teacher is coming over so we can continue planning the big reunion this summer. I’ve been slacking on my reunion duties though. Bad Michele! Aside from, I plan on doing nothing seeing as how I can hardly move. Every piece of me hurts (except my legs – they seem okay). I guess all that running has been helping!

Mountaineering 101
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Mountaineering

Here's the blog I meant to post on Friday. I'm back posting so you probably won't even notice. :)

Tomorrow I'm headed up to Mt Hood for an Alpine Mountaineering class. We learn how to use an ice ax, self belay and self arrest, snow travel, roped travel, glissading, etc... It should be interesting provided I don't break my arm in the process. Next weekend I am taking a class for Glacial Travel and Crevasse Rescue training.

http://www.oregonpeakadventures.com/alpine_mountaineering.htm

http://www.oregonpeakadventures.com/glacier_travel_&_crevasse_rescue.htm

I think if I really like these (I'm excited about them but still uncertain) I might think about taking the Mazamas Basic Climbing Education which is 6 weeks long so it's a bit more intense. But first I want to see how these go. I might totally hate it.

Zurich - one day too many
Mood:  irritated
Here it, Tuesday and I'm still in Zurich. I should have been home by now but I'm not. A stupid little crack in the windshield, no extra planes laying around and so we had to stay overnight. ARGH! I so want to be home right now. But it'll be another 24 hrs.

Just wanted to give the update. I still have a few more pics to post but you will have to wait. :)